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The budget of traditional policies, including the Common Agriculture Policy, should be maintained at current level

Home / The budget of traditional policies, including the Common Agriculture Policy, should be maintained at current level

14Oct

The budget for the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) should be maintained at current level in order to fulfil the ambitious goals of the policy – emphasized Zsolt Feldman state secretary for agriculture at the high level conference on the future of the EU budget in Brussels on the 12th of October. With the help of the CAP, European farmers are providing healthy, high quality and safe foodstuff for 500 million European citizens day by day in a great variety, in sufficient quantities and in reasonable prices. “Decreasing CAP funds implies the risk of higher food prices, less variety or less quality.” – highlighted the state secretary for agriculture.

Besides decreasing the funds, the European Commission is proposing to comply with more ambitious environmental and climate conditions. “Hungary agrees with the approach that the CAP should do more to in the field of environment and mitigating climate change, but the proposed budget and the level of ambition are not equal. We cannot do more from less!” – emphasized the state secretary. Complying with more ambitious “green” objectives should not endanger farmers’ income stability and should not restrict their competitiveness. High quality foodstuff produced in the EU should not be substituted with foodstuffs imported from third countries, which are produced in a non-sustainable way.

Hungary is interested in adopting a new Multiannual Financial Framework, which provides appropriate funding for traditional policies. Zsolt Feldman recalled that the Hungarian Government was among the firsts to declare its willingness to contribute more to the EU budget.